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Toronto Mayor John Tory is a cautious man by nature, which explains why he is taking so much time deciding whether the city should bid for the 2024 Olympics.

At this stage it’s a 50-50 bet on which way he’ll go. We’ll know the answer on Tuesday when the Toronto mayor must inform the International Olympic Committee on whether the city wants to be in or out of the running.

The decision should be easy because the case in favour of hosting the Olympics is so persuasive — tens of thousands of jobs over a seven-year period, an improved economy, major transit and infrastructure improvements, more affordable housing and a legacy of arts, cultural and sporting facilities.

But Tory also has been bombarded in recent days by a noisy gaggle of near-professional Olympic critics and Toronto bashers who have been dominating airwaves and newspaper opinion pages.

For them, the Olympics are a waste of money, too expensive, too corrupt, filled with traffic chaos, security threats and overfed, pompous bureaucrats.

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Rather than seeming to want a great city, these critics appear to want Toronto to be an unambitious city, expressing a negative mentality that holds that Toronto won’t be able to get it right when it comes to staging a successful Games.

Just because Montreal, Athens and some other cities that have hosted the Summer Olympics have screwed up doesn’t mean Toronto will.

In fact, Toronto can get it spectacularly right on the Olympics.

We did it with the Pan Am Games this summer. There’s no reason to believe we won’t be able to do it with the 2024 Olympics.

As the successful Pan Am Games have proven, the city can stage a major international event — and can destroy all the naysayers’ arguments about deficits, gridlock and public apathy.

According to some unofficial estimates from Pan Am officials, the Games came in some $57 million under budget in capital spending and millions under on the operating side. Overall, the Games will actually show an operating surplus when all the bills are paid.

There wasn’t a single significant screw-up on security or technology and critics’ predictions of a transit nightmare were completely overblown.

The Games created thousands of construction jobs, boosted the economy, business activity and tourism and left a legacy of sports facilities from Hamilton to Welland, Scarborough, Markham, Ajax and beyond.

They also kick-started a wave of transit improvements, including the new rail link between Union Station and Pearson airport and expanding Go train service, that seemed forever stalled. In addition, the Games resulted in hundreds of affordable housing units in what was the athletes’ village.

Many of these projects would not have gotten off the ground, or would have been mired in bureaucratic graveyards for years and decades, if it had not been for the city winning the Pan Am Games.

In the final hours leading up to his decision, Tory should heed some advice from Toronto Pan Am Games chair and former premier David Peterson.

First, do it only if you believe passionately in a vision of what the Games can do for Toronto. As Peterson said this week, that’s because “there will be critics. There will be tough times. The vision pulls you through. It keeps you on track.”

Second, don’t look at an Olympics as an end in itself. It’s a means to an end. Transit will be improved, roads will be paved, potholes filled, children will have more places to play. The Games will make the city a better place to live, work and play.

Third, don’t go it alone. An Olympic bid will need the co-operation of the city, the province, the federal government — and especially the private sector.

Fourth, don’t build a permanent 90,000-seat stadium. Instead, build a stadium with temporary seating and only 45,000-50,000 permanent seats. After the Games, the stadium could be converted into a new home for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.

It will be a tough fight to win the 2024 Olympics. Stiff competition will come from Los Angeles, Paris, Budapest, Hamburg and Rome. The IOC will choose the host city in 2017.

It will take real courage on Tory’s part to go ahead with an Olympic bid.

But, as Peterson says, Toronto has proven we can plan, build and execute on ambitious dreams and bold ideas. It’s time to say Yes.

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